Oxwich is a sort of a microcosm; a pleasant village spot
that has everything you need. It’s as though someone has gone through a Dummies Guide to Quaint Villages and
picked out one of every item to build. How many spots can boast a campsite,
hotel, restaurant, 12th-century church, 14th-century
castle, a beach, a bank of woods and a fertile marshland awash with wildlife.
Appealing as it is to have plenty of amenities though, this
isn’t a place burgeoning into a bustling town. Far from it. Oxwich remains
small and wonderfully untarnished, with a sleepy winter to itself before
summers arrive and campers spill out onto the beach and the surrounding coastal
path.
Enjoying the tourist-busy summers but steering itself away
from commercialism and the sterile white plastic of the caravan contingent,
Oxwich Camping Park is the place to head for those with a tent under their arm
and a bucket and spade in the boot. The site has the utilities you need –
showers, laundry and a plug to charge your phone – without the non-tenting extras you don't, like electrical hook-ups, satellite TV
connection and swathes of gravel hardstandings. And, while they purposefully
try and avoid that commercial humdrum (there’s no onsite shop so you’ll have to
use the minimart down the road) there’s still the gift of a heated swimming
pool – a wonderful addition to the site and unobstructed by holiday park
aqua aerobics or underwater zumba.
The camping fields themselves are a pair of large grassy meadows,
divided by the central tarmac track that leads into the site and up to the
reception and ablutions building. Mature trees line the edges along with a long
line that form another partial hedge. They give the sense of a third, more
private meadow, though really the site is all one big, inclusive space. From one
edge you can walk into the trees that back Oxwich Marsh and follow a short
trail down to the beach. The vast expanse of sand enjoys a long tidal range,
so when the sea recedes kids can run wild on the flat beach, flinging the
frisbee or building a sand fort and preparing for the waters to return!
When the tide does begin to shrink the sands once more, head
back up to the peninsula and explore Oxwich Wood or venture down the road to
PJ’s Surf Shop. Board under arm, the waves can give you all they’ve got and you’re
still guaranteed a hot shower at the end of it. What more could you want from a
coastal campsite?